Their Battles, July 7Th, 2026 Ad / November 7Th, 380 He Part 2

When Asuna rushed for the supply wagon through the crowd of men-at-arms

preparing to leave, she found a metal wheelchair on its side, its black-clad rider

feebly waving his left hand, and hovering over him, two girls.

Ronie looked up at the sound of footsteps, her cheeks tear streaked, and

when she recognized Asuna, broke into a shout. "A…Asuna! Kirito…he keeps

trying to leave…"

Asuna nodded, biting her lip. She knelt down and squeezed his left hand with

the only hand she had left. "Yes…Alice…was abducted by the enemy emperor. I

think Kirito must have sensed that."

"What—Miss Alice?!" yelped Tiese. Her already white cheeks went even

paler.

The only thing that broke the resulting silence was a weak, wordless grunt

from Kirito.

"Ah…aa…"

His hand moved, trying to touch Asuna's wounded arm.

"Kirito…are you…worried about me?" she mumbled. When Ronie noticed her

injured arm, she shrieked.

"M-Miss Asuna! Your arm—!!"

"I'm all right. This is really only a kind of temporary wound for me," she said,

lifting the arm, which was severed a bit below the elbow.

Rath's Takeru Higa had given her a broad explanation of the technology

behind the Mnemonic Visualizer that gave shape to the Underworld. Every

object was generated by the Seed program, just like in ALO, but to Alice and

Kirito, who were diving through The Soul Translator, and to the artificial

fluctlights like the girls here, everything in the world was a kind of "shared

memory" loaded from the simulation's Main Visualizer. It was another reality,

materialized with the power of imagination.

The life (hit points) given to the Stacia super-account was vast. It was

practically at the maximum number that could be designated, so not even a

hundred swords piercing her with normal attacks would reduce her life to

nothing.

But when the red soldier had hit her arm with that huge battle-ax, Asuna had

felt true, pure terror. She'd imagined that massive ax easily chopping her arm

off, and her imagination had turned it into reality.

Kirito's right arm was the same thing. His numerical life had recovered

already, but the arm wasn't restored. It was because Kirito continued to punish

himself.

Asuna put her good hand over the place where her bandaged left arm was

severed. She focused her mind on it, internally chanting.

I will not be afraid again. I will not give in to anything…not until I've protected

Kirito and the rest of this world.

A little glow appeared inside her wound. The warm light extended silently in

front of her, re-creating her lost left arm. She smiled at the girls, who stared at

her with the wonder of having witnessed a miracle. Asuna caressed Kirito's

head with her new hand.

She whispered to her paramour, "See? I'm fine. I'm sure we'll rescue Alice,

too. So when you're ready…you don't have to blame yourself anymore…"

She didn't know if he understood her, but she could feel the tension in his

skinny body begin to ease, bit by bit. She hugged him again, stronger this time,

and lifted her head.

"We're going to chase after the enemy emperor. Bercouli is in pursuit of the

dragons now, so I'm sure he'll catch up at some point. Until then…take good

care of Kirito, Ronie and Tiese."

"W-we will!"

"Don't worry, Miss Asuna!"

She smiled at the girls, then left Kirito to Ronie and jumped off the wagon,

holding back tears. Just then, she was accompanied by the tall knight who'd

joined Asuna and Ronie in the previous night's recollection of memories in the

tent. The woman's silver armor was stained with blood and dust, and there was

a bandage around her forehead, but she did not seem to be badly wounded.

"Oh good, Sortiliena, you're all right," Asuna said.

The knight gave her an Underworld-style salute. "I'm glad you are well, too…

But from what I overheard, the enemy general abducted Lady Alice…"

"Yes. I was just telling Ronie and Tiese: Emperor Vecta left his army behind

and kidnapped Alice on his own. We didn't expect him to put himself at that

much risk…"

"I…I can't believe it…," Sortiliena muttered, aghast.

Asuna reached out with her newly healed hand and squeezed the other

woman's shoulder. "But it's not over yet. Bercouli's chasing after Vecta on the

dragons. We're going to catch up to them before too long."

"All right."

Satisfied, the two rushed back to the main bulk of the Human Guardian

Army's decoy force. The seven hundred guards were prepared to move out on

Integrity Knight Renly's orders. The sacred arts healers were done with their

task, and they and the supply team assumed the center position in the midst of

the rows of troops.

When Renly came to announce they were all ready, Asuna said, "You're the

only Integrity Knight left among the force, Renly. You're the commander; you

give the order."

"R…right, I'll do it," the boy said, nodding nervously. He lifted his right arm

and called out, "Lady Alice protected us in the battle at the gate! Now it is our

turn to fight for her sake! Let us take her back from the enemy's grasp and

return with her to the human realm!!"

The guards responded with a powerful shout. Renly swung his arm down. "All

troops, depart!!"

At the head of the marching formation, Renly's dragon Kazenui began to run.

Four hundred front guards followed on horse and on foot. After that came eight

wagons with supplies and three hundred rear guards.

One unit, Integrity Knight Sheyta's dragon, did not move from its spot. They

had no choice but to undo its reins, at which point the creature, scaled the

same gray as its master's hair, trilled briefly and flew off in the opposite

direction, heading for the battlefield at the ravine to the north, where Sheyta

still fought.

In the wagon line, Asuna rode the same horse as Sortiliena and let her mind

touch upon the situation.

Our only enemy is Emperor Vecta, no one else.

Like her, he was a real-world human, and his life here was temporary. So she

would put an end to him, even if it meant they both had to die. She had to do it

for the sake of Sheyta, who'd stayed behind in a deadly battle to prevent the

red soldiers from pursuing, and for the one-eyed pugilist and his four thousand

followers.

Some time later, the forest of dead trees gave way to a huge mortar-shaped

sunken space ahead. A thin path led directly south through the craterlike

deformity.

Going by RPG rules, any path would lead to a special location, like a town or

dungeon. But supposedly, the southern portion of the Dark Territory did not

feature any homeland for the nonhuman races. In other words, if this path led

to anything, it could only be the World's End Altar, and somewhere along its

length would be Emperor Vecta and Alice.

There was no sign of the emperor's dragon, nor of Bercouli's dragons in

pursuit. But the dwindling army of seven hundred raced, footsteps rumbling,

across the dusty earth with as much speed as they could muster.

They had crested the rim of the crater and rushed down the side and were

heading into the center of the mortar-shaped space when something rumbled,

low and heavy. It was a buzzing vibration, like the beating of insect wings.

"…?"

Asuna glanced up. Her head swiveled left and right. She turned to look over

her shoulder.

Only when she faced forward again did she see what was causing the sound.

Thin red lines.

Strings of text in a small font, flickering on and off at random, descending to

earth from the sky, hundreds at a time.

"...…No...…"

Her lips quavered.

No, it can't be. Not more. Not again.

But—

Zshaaaaa!!

A sound like a sudden downpour burst upon them. The red lines extended to

the left and right, falling without end. They formed a high-density screen along

the rim of the crater, completely trapping the armed formation in the middle.

Just minutes after swearing an oath that she'd never give in to fear, Asuna felt

her legs going weak.

Where the lines fell, more of those vicious crimson soldiers appeared—the

VRMMO players summoned here from the real world.

"N…no stopping!!" Renly commanded the rest of them. "Charge!! Chaaarge!!"

The rattled human army regained its poise and roared back, picking up its

pace. The formation began to rush straight up the far slope of the crater.

But as though anticipating that eventuality, the new red troops were most

densely clustered along the southern edge. There were at least a thousand

soldiers directly blocking their way…if not two.

Should I risk logging out and use Stacia's terrain-alteration power one more

time? If I'm not careful, it could end up blocking our army's path, too…

Asuna hesitated for a moment, but her thoughts were interrupted by a

dragon's roar. At the front of the formation, Renly's mount, Kazenui, was

charging ahead, flames flickering from the sides of its jaw.

"Ah…! Renly's going to sacrifice himself to tear the way open!" shrieked

Sortiliena.

As if he heard her, Renly glanced back toward them. The boy's lips formed the

words The rest is up to you.

He faced forward and removed the pair of beautiful boomerangs from his

waist, holding them up.

Just before he could throw them, however, the sky directly over the crater

abruptly changed color. The bloodred of the Dark Territory sky was split by a

cross, revealing brilliant azure blue beyond it.

The mass of red soldiers preparing to charge from the crater rim, the rushing

human army, even Renly at their lead—all looked up at the sky in unison.

It was an infinite blue. It seemed to reach out into space.

And from its vast reach came falling a bright, shining star.

No, a person. She was wearing armor the same blue as that sky and a skirt as

white as a cloud. The figure's short, wind-whipped hair was light blue. In her left

hand was a massive longbow. But the shining was so bright that her face was

not visible.

Who…? Who are you? Asuna wondered silently.

In answer, the descending figure raised the bow, which was as tall as she was,

up to the sky as she fell.

Her right hand pulled on the string, which glowed faintly as well.

There was a brighter flash. Between the bow and the string appeared an

arrow of fire that shone pure white.

Both the Human Guardian Army and the red infantry had come to a stop. In

the resulting silence, Asuna heard Sortiliena whisper, "S…Solus…?"

Seemingly in response to her name being invoked, the brilliant arrow of light

shot directly up into the sky.

Instantly, it split apart into many pieces that flew in all directions.

They curved and hurtled at tight angles, plunging down to the surface as

blazing laser beams.

Sortiliena Serlut was only half-correct.

The figure who appeared in the air over the crater was indeed Super-Account

02, the Sun Goddess, Solus. But she was being played by a real-world human

logging in to the system.

And the ability she'd been given was a Wide-Ranging Annihilation attack.

Sinon, aka Shino Asada, viewed the absolute destruction she had caused with

a thrill of horror and recalled the conversation she'd had with the engineer who

called himself Higa.

"Okay, um, Sinon, this super-account is really strong, but it's not all-powerful.

If you have to perform a major operation in the Underworld, it has to take a

form that the residents of that world will be able to process and understand. So

your given abilities will reflect that."

"Um…meaning that I'm not actually a GM, I'm just a really, really strong

player?"

Shino was resting inside an STL machine—which was as huge as some kind of

first-generation experimental full-dive system—within the Roppongi office of a

shady tech firm named Rath. Higa's voice was coming through the speakers. She

heard the sound of him snapping his fingers.

"Yes, that's exactly right. So the Solus account I'm giving you isn't immune

from the general principles that govern resource usage in the Underworld. To

attack with your bow, you will have to expend spatial resources. You have an

automatic recharging ability, so you'll never run out of power entirely during the

day, but you basically can't shoot rapid-fire at will."

As Higa had said, the white bow in Sinon's left hand was noticeably duller

after she executed the massive attack. The glowing effects were coming back to

the tips of the bow, but it would probably take two or three minutes before she

could use a max-power attack like that again.

Can't shoot it rapid-fire? Fine. I'm used to single-shot weapons more than

automatics anyway.

She used this moment to survey the explosions she had caused on the ground

below.

The crater was about two-thirds of a mile across, and along its rim, charred

bodies were disintegrating back into light. This single attack had destroyed over

five thousand of the enemy. Fortunately, those were not true residents of the

Underworld, but American players who had logged in from the real world, just

like Sinon had. They believed they were getting a free beta test and got burned

to death the moment they logged in. They were all fuming back in the real

world by now, she could only assume.

In the center of the crater, a group that was tiny in comparison to the red

forces had begun forward progress again. There were well over ten thousand

enemies left, but close to half were frozen in place, watching Sinon in the sky in

preparation for another bombardment. They might actually be able to break

the blockade.

Sinon narrowed her eyes and stared at the human army's formation. At once,

she identified a brown-haired girl sitting on a white horse in the center of the

formation, staring up at her.

Allowing a smile to creep over her features, Sinon attempted to control

another of the unique powers gifted to the Solus account, Unlimited Flight.

When Higa had told her that she could fly with the power of her imagination, it

had sounded crazy to her, but once she tried it, there wasn't much difference

from the "voluntary flight" of ALO. She flew straight downward, heading for the

wagon just behind the girl.

When her ultramarine boots touched down on the canvas hood of the wagon,

she held up her hand in greeting.

"Sorry it took so long, Asuna."

The girl in the pearl-gray dress-style armor looked up at her, wide eyes welling

up with tears. Nimbly, she stood atop the running horse and leaped onto the

hood, too.

"Shino-non…!!" she cried, wrenching the words out, her arms wide open. She

enveloped Sinon in an embrace, and the girl patted Asuna's back and

whispered, "You did so well. It's all right…I've got it from here."

With the slightly taller Asuna still clutching her, Sinon readied her bow, which

was about 20 percent recharged, and pulled the string back.

The GM equipment given to the Solus account, a bow called Annihilation Ray,

controlled its power by the force exerted on the string, and its attack range by

the angle of the bow. By stopping her hand just four inches back, she produced

a much smaller, thinner arrow of light. Sinon pointed it at the group of enemies

in the path of the large dragon that led the pack.

It shot quietly and unassumingly, with the bow at a twenty-degree incline to

the right. The light beam split apart, the pieces landing within a diameter of

about ten yards from one another.

The resulting explosions would put a TOW missile to shame. Red armor blew

sky-high and disintegrated. The dragon charged right through the space the

blast created. It bowled over the other dozen-plus soldiers with its head and

raked them with its claws. They didn't stand a chance.

At last, the rest of the soldiers had recovered from the shock of the laser

attack and realized that their prey was in the process of getting away. They

rushed along the slope of the crater, a red tsunami that howled and swore.

Sinon hung the bow on her arm and put her hands on Asuna's shoulders,

pushing the girl away.

"Asuna. About three miles south of here, I saw something that looked like a

historical ruin. This path runs right through the middle of it, and there are a

bunch of huge statues on either side of it. I think we can fight the enemy off

there without getting surrounded. Let's beat the rest of them from that spot."

Asuna was an experienced fighter herself, of course, and as she recognized

the wisdom of this advice, her expression tightened up at once. She rubbed the

tears away and opened her mouth. "All right, Shino-non…I mean, Sinon.

America might have a lot of VRMMO players, but surely they can't get many

more than this right away. If we can beat that ten-thousand-plus, the enemy

won't have another move…I think."

"All right, let me handle this. Now…with that settled…"

Sinon glanced back to confirm that the very rear line of the human army had

cleared the enemy blockade, then she continued in a quieter voice, "Is, er…is

Kirito in this group?"

Asuna had to grimace at that. "Look, you don't need to ask me so awkwardly.

Kirito's right in here," she said, pointing down at their feet to indicate the

wagon they were standing on.

"Oh, he is? Then, um…I'll just go say hi to him."

Sinon cleared her throat and moved over to the rear edge of the canopy that

covered the huge wagon, then she used her flight powers to easily slide into the

interior of the vehicle. She waited for Asuna to come down next, then headed

past the stacks of boxes.

The first thing that came into view was two girls wearing armor over what

looked like school uniforms. They both looked back at Sinon with wide-eyed

wonder.

"S…Solus…?"

Sinon glanced down at her fanciful outfit and shrugged. "Hello, it's nice to

meet you. I might look like Solus, but not on the inside. My name is Sinon," she

said with a forced smile.

The girls reacted with surprise, but when they looked over her shoulder at

Asuna, they seemed to understand.

Sinon gave them a gentle nod and said, "That's right—I'm from the real world,

like Asuna. And I am Kirito's…friend."

"Oh…I see," said the red-haired girl. But the one with dark-brown hair

narrowed her eyes just a bit and murmured, "They're all women…"

Sinon had to smirk to herself—I'm not even the last one. She walked past the

girls on her way to the back of the wagon space.

Sitting there in a simple wheelchair, clutching two longswords with just one

arm, was a young man dressed in black.

Takeru Higa had described Kirito's condition to her already. But seeing him

broken like this in person filled her chest with emotion and brought tears to her

eyes.

"…Aa…"

His empty eyes could not focus directly on Sinon, but he did produce a slight

croak when she came into view. Sinon took a knee before her one-time rival,

then friend, then savior.

The swordsman's body, sunken into the back and armrest, was so skinny that

she hesitated to touch him. Sinon placed her longbow on the floor of the wagon

and reached out to gently enfold his shoulders with her hands.

Kirito's soul, his fluctlight, was deeply damaged down in the core of its being,

his self-image. Higa had told her in hushed tones that they had not yet

discovered a method of healing him. But Sinon just closed her eyes, sending the

welling tears down her cheeks, and thought, That's easy.

Many people had countless irreplaceable memories of and strong feelings for

the young man named Kirito. They just needed to collect those feelings up, bit

by bit, and return them to him.

There, can't you feel it? That's the you that exists in me. A sarcastic prankster,

stubborn, naïve…and stronger and kinder than anyone I know.

For a moment, Sinon forgot that Asuna was there, and she turned to brush

her lips against his cheek.

Shino Asada had no idea that, at that very moment, her fervent emotions

were almost, almost encroaching on the one method that could actually heal

Kazuto Kirigaya's soul. If Shino had known more about the nature of the

Underworld and fluctlights, she might have landed upon the answer. But the

advance knowledge she'd been given just before her dive covered only the

current state of the world and the capabilities of the Solus account.

So when Kazuto's body twitched a little and rose in temperature after her lips

brushed him, she did not think further of it.

Sinon let go of Kirito at once and stood to face the three behind her.

"It's all right. Kirito will be better before you know it. Just when we need him

the most."

Asuna and the two girls nodded back tearfully.

"Well…I'm going to fly down to the ruins south of here to get an idea of the

lay of the land. You take care of Kirito for the time being," Sinon said, turning

toward the back exit of the wagon—only for Asuna to grab her shoulder.

Sinon held her breath when she saw the fierce look in the other girl's eyes.

"A…Asuna, what is it…?"

For a moment, she was afraid that Asuna would be angry that she'd kissed

Kirito, but that was not the case, of course.

"H-hey, Sinon, did you just mention flying?! Can…can you fly?!" she

demanded.

"Um…yes," Sinon replied, startled. "It's a special feature of the Solus account.

I heard it doesn't even have a time limit…"

"Then we're not the ones you should be saving! Go get Alice…She was

captured by the emperor!!"

Asuna went on to explain the situation in fuller detail; it was more desperate

than Sinon could have imagined. Emperor Vecta was another super-account

with a real-world player in it, and he had abducted Alice the Integrity Knight,

the key to everything. Now he was flying far to the south with her on a dragon,

and only Commander Bercouli of the knights was giving direct chase.

"Even for the commander, facing a super-account alone is too much of a

burden. If we can't save Alice before the emperor reaches the World's End

Altar, he's going to destroy this entire world. Please, Sinon…help Bercouli!"

Once she'd grasped the situation and had a description of Bercouli driven into

her mind, Sinon jumped straight out of the wagon into flight.

The seven-hundred-strong human army headed south, raising a trail of dust

behind it. The army of red charging after them from the north was at least

twenty times their number.

I'll head right back as soon as I get Alice. Just hold out until then, Asuna.

Sinon swung to the south and added as much acceleration to her flight as her

imagination could allow. She became a comet with a white tail, splitting the red

sky in two as she streaked across it.

As she stared down at the landscape below, another thought passed through

her mind.

Hang on…if she logged in at the same moment I did, then where is Leafa?

3

Renly the Integrity Knight led the human army, with the American players

chasing furiously after them.

But far to the north, on the southern edge of the ravine Asuna created,

Iskahn's pugilists guild and the Integrity Knight Sheyta were battling for their

lives against the first red army, which was still over ten thousand in number.

Even farther north, at the plains outside the Eastern Gate, where the scars of

battle were still fresh, one nonhuman stood deep in thought.

Steel armor covered his squat body. A leather cape trailed in the wind. Wide

ears drooped at the sides of his round head, and a flat-ended nose jutted out of

the front.

It was Lilpilin, the chief of the orcs.

With the mere three thousand remaining members of his tribe waiting, he

walked alone to a place where he could see the Eastern Gate well. He did not

allow a single bodyguard along with him, because he wanted no one to see him

crawling along the ground.

After hours of digging through the gravel, Lilpilin finally found what he was

looking for—a silver earring with a simple design carved into it.

He scooped it up into his palm. It had formerly been in the ear of Lenju, the

princess who had led the orc troops into sacrifice for the massive dark art that

the emperor had demanded.

That was the only item of hers he could find. Neither she nor the three

thousand orc soldiers who'd died with her had left behind a body—or even a

piece of armor. The horrific spell cast by the dark mages guild had converted

the orcs' flesh and even their equipment into dark power, devouring them

whole.

The chancellor of the guild, Dee Eye Ell, who'd carried out the cruel spell, and

even the emperor, who'd ordered it, were no longer present.

Dee had perished in the deadly and beautiful wide-range counterattack of the

Priestess of Light, and the emperor had flown south in pursuit of that priestess.

He had not released Lilpilin from the order to stay put.

The three thousand surviving orcs could not defeat the Human Guardian

Army and the Integrity Knights guarding the Eastern Gate. The desperate wish

of the five races of darkness—the conquest of the fertile human realm—was

over.

But in that case…why?

Why did Lilpilin's lifelong friend Lenju and the three thousand orcs who were

sacrificed along with her…Why did the two thousand orcs who fought in the

battle at the gate have to die? What glory had their death brought the Dark

Territory?

The answer was "nothing." Not a single thing.

Five thousand of his people had died for an empty struggle. Just because they

were uglier than humankind.

Lilpilin clutched the tiny earring to his chest and fell to his knees. Rage,

helplessness, and overwhelming grief thrust through his heart, bubbling up in

the form of tears and sobs…

Until there was a faint sound behind his back.

The orc chieftain leaped to his feet, spinning around to see a young human

woman sprawled on her behind, grimacing with pain. Her hair was brilliant and

golden, her skin was flawless, her armor shone, and her garments were the

color of young shoots…She was clearly a resident of the Human Empire, not the

dark lands.

Lilpilin's initial reaction was not surprise at her sudden appearance, or anger

at what humanity had done to him, but something closer to shame, a wish that

she would not look at him.

She was just too beautiful for him to bear.

His first encounter with a young white Ium lady left him with a completely

different impression than the tall, powerful, and darker-skinned women of the

Dark Territory. Her body was so delicate that a mere touch might break off her

limbs. Her hair shone brilliantly even in the weak sunlight, and the large eyes

that gazed up at him in surprise were as pure as polished emeralds.

Lilpilin cursed his own senses, that he should find this small, fragile creature

so beautiful that she made him quake and tremble. And he feared the

recognition of disgust in those green pools.

"D…don't look!! Don't look at meeee!!" he screamed, covering his face with

one fist and clenching the hilt of his sword with the other. Cut off her head

before you hear her scream with horror, his instincts told him.

But in the moment that he went to lift his sword, he felt the earring in his left

hand prick his palm. It felt to him that Lenju was telling him not to do it. And in

that moment, he heard something he'd never expected to hear—not a scream,

but words.

"Um…good afternoon. Or is it morning?"

The girl hopped to her feet, patted her short, flared trousers, and grinned at

him. Lilpilin stared down at her from behind his concealing fist, blinking in

disbelief.

There was no hatred in her eyes, nor disdain, nor even fear, it seemed. But to

white Ium children, orcs from the Dark Territory were supposed to be peopleeating monsters.

"Wh…why?" he stammered, at a loss. It was not the voice of one of the ten

lords of darkness. "Why don't you wun away? Why don't you scweam? Aren't

you human?"

Now it was the girl's turn to look startled and uncertain. "Why? I mean…"

In the manner of one pointing out such obvious facts as the earth being flat

and the sky being red, she said, "Aren't you human?"

For some reason, a deep jolt ran through his spine. The demi-human chieftain

struggled for words but kept his greatsword clenched tightly. "H…human? Me?

Dat's widiculous, just look at me! I am an orc! Da being you white Iums call a

pig-man!!"

"But you're still human," the girl repeated, putting her delicate hands to her

waist. She spoke like a parent lecturing a child. "We're here talking to each

other, aren't we? What more proof does there need to be?"

"What…? But...…"

Lilpilin didn't know how to argue against that. The confident girl with the

green eyes said things that just did not fit into his lifetime of experience as an

orc chieftain drowning in hatred for humanity and his inferiority complex

toward them.

…If I can talk to them, I'm human?

Was the definition of human really that simple? Because the goblins and

ogres and giants could all speak the common tongue, too. And with the orcs

included, the four races had always been known as demi-humans or

humanoids, a class strictly separated from humanity.

Lilpilin stood there in shock and confusion, gasping and snorting for breath.

But the girl just pushed all of that aside with a simple "More importantly" and

spun around to survey the area.

"…Where are we?"

Suguha Kirigaya, better known as Leafa, surmised that she had dropped down

at a location far off from the initial login coordinates. She stared up at the

baleful red sky overhead.

When she'd heard that The Soul Translator she was being given to use, STL

#6, was still so new that they hadn't removed the plastic shrink-wrap yet, she'd

had a bad feeling in the back of her mind. Suguha would never use a brand-new

shinai in a kendo competition, and she didn't trust electronics when they were

fresh out of the box. She had a very reliable streak of coming home with

defective products.

Her login coordinates were supposed to be set to Asuna's present location,

the same as Sinon's in STL #1 next to her. Given that they were nowhere to be

seen, something must've gone wrong. But the blasted wasteland all around

wasn't empty—there was a humanoid with a round body and a piglike face

nearby: an orc.

According to the color marker that functioned for only a short period after the

initial dive, this was an orc, and not one of the enemy American VRMMO

players. It was an artificial fluctlight of the Underworld, a true bottom-up

artificial intelligence, as Yui described it.

When she'd been given an explanation of what the Underworlders really

were, Leafa had sworn to herself that unless it was absolutely, unavoidably

necessary, she would never draw her sword to harm them.

It only made sense. She couldn't kill the people that her brother Kirito was

trying to protect. If the artificial fluctlights died in this virtual world, their souls

would be forever destroyed and never come back.

But now that she had a better look…

Leafa was used to playing in ALO, which boasted the finest graphics of any

game found in The Seed Nexus, but the realism of the orc in her presence left

her stunned. The movement and dampness of that large pink snout, the texture

of the metal armor and leather cloak over its huge body, and most of all, the

richness of expression and intelligence in its small black eyes—these things told

her all she needed to know about the authenticity of the soul behind it all.

She tried asking the orc where they were, but for some reason, it looked away

in seeming embarrassment and did not reply. Deciding that starting from a

more formal position might be better, she switched to a different question.

"Um…what's your name?"

The white Ium girl's second question was simple enough that despite the orc

chieftain's extreme confusion, he answered it on instinct. Perhaps because, of

all the things he'd been given in life, his name was the one thing he did not

hate.

"I…I am Lilpilin."

Immediately, he regretted it. His introduction brought to mind the first time

he visited Obsidia Palace and introduced himself to the human knights and

mages, only to be laughed off.

But the girl just grinned innocently again and repeated his name. "Lilpilin…

that's a wonderful name. I'm Leafa. It's nice to meet you, Lilpilin."

And once again, she gave him a shock: She extended her willowy arm in his

direction.

He was familiar with handshakes, of course; orcs performed them on a daily

basis. But he had never in his life heard of an orc and Ium formally shaking

hands.

What in the world does this human want? Is it a trap? Or the work of some

mage? Have I been placed under the effect of a bewitching art?

He stared hard at the little hand and growled. The girl waited for him for a

good ten seconds before she finally lowered her arm in disappointment. He felt

a prickle of pain in his chest at that, for some reason.

If he stood around talking to—or even just looking at—this girl, it was going to

drive him crazy. Lilpilin had no desire to attack her anymore, so he clung to the

simplest solution to this situation that did not involve violence instead.

"You…you awe a guard—no, a knight—of da human awmy. I will take you

pwisonah, den. I'll take you all da way to da empewah!"

She might appear young, but the girl's armor and the long blade at her side

were clearly not ordinary army issue. The way it gleamed with brilliant detail

was clearly a step above even Lilpilin's equipment.

But his threat did not seem to frighten the girl. She looked thoughtful and

eventually tilted her shoulders to ask, "When you say 'Emperor,' you mean

Vecta, the god of darkness, right?"

"D…dat's wight."

"All right. Then take me to the emperor," she said, sticking her hands out

together. He was confused at first, until he recognized that she was motioning

not for a handshake, but for him to chain her up.

I don't understand what she's thinking…

Lilpilin removed a decorative rope from his waist sash and roughly tied it

around the girl's arms—though not very tight. Only after he held the other end

and tugged on it did he recall that the emperor was no longer with the main

body of the Dark Army.

If he stopped to take any further detail into account, his mind was going to

catch on fire. If the emperor was absent, then that flippant dark knight who was

his second-in-command, or Rengil, the head of the commerce guild, would be

able to decide her fate.

He spun around and began to pull her along, not too roughly, but only got a

few steps along when there was suddenly something like a black mist all around

them. A nasty stench stung his nostrils. Soon Lilpilin could not even see, and he

spun around in alarm.

"Wha…?!" came a yelp of alarm, which belonged to the girl named Leafa. Out

of the corner of his eye, Lilpilin caught sight of an arm reaching through the

thick darkness to grab Leafa's dangling hair and violently yank her upward.

Then the owner of the arm came tearing through the veil to reveal herself.

A woman who should have been dead—Dee Eye Ell, chancellor of the dark

mages guild—stood there with a sadistic smile on her blue lips.

Why can't I catch up?

Commander Bercouli of the Integrity Knights felt equal measures of

impatience and alarm.

He'd been in pursuit with three dragons for over two hours now. They'd flown

over the forest where the Human Guardian Army was camped, over the round

crater to the south of it, over the ruins with their eerie, tall statues, and even

farther into the south of the Dark Territory, but there was no indication that

he'd gotten any closer to the enemy. The dragon bearing Emperor Vecta and

Bercouli's prize pupil, Alice, was still just a tiny black dot on the horizon.

The emperor had the weight of two people dragging on a single dragon. But

Bercouli had the trio of Hoshigami, Amayori, and Takiguri, which he rode in

turns, minimizing the fatigue of the dragons. In theory, he ought to be catching

up by now.

Why couldn't he get any closer? Could the emperor control the dragon's life

by willpower alone?

That couldn't be possible. Directly manipulating life was the greatest of

forbidden arts, something that even the late Administrator could not do.

And he couldn't possibly keep it flying indefinitely. The dragon would need to

rest at least twice in order to reach the World's End Altar at the southernmost

tip of the Dark Territory. The same was true of Bercouli's dragons. If they were

going at the same speed, he would never close the gap.

Perhaps there was nothing to be done.

Bercouli could not use any ranged arts that could reach to the very horizon. If

there was one thing that could break through this stalemate, it was…

The commander brushed the hilt of the sword on his left hip. It was cold,

hard, and trusty. But he could sense that his sword was far from recovering all

its life. The fatigue on the weapon from the Perfect Weapon Control art he'd

used at the Eastern Gate was worse than he'd realized.

And the ultimate technique of the Time-Splitting Sword that Bercouli was

considering would cost a vast amount of the weapon's life.

He could use it only once. It would have to be wielded with such accuracy that

it could split the eye of a needle.

Bercouli patted Takiguri on the neck and leaped over to Hoshigami nearby.

His longtime partner was so trustworthy he did not need to hold the reins to

commune with the dragon. It carefully adjusted altitude automatically.

His aim was at a black dot on the distant horizon the size of a grain of sand.

He wanted to aim at the emperor himself, but without being able to visually

identify him, the threat of missing was too great. Instead, he focused his entire

mind on the one detail he could just barely make out: the flapping wing of the

black dragon.

Bercouli stood tall in the saddle. His right hand moved slowly and gracefully,

pulling his longsword, which was entirely made of one material, from its wellused sheath.

He took a stance with his right side forward and extended the steel blade,

which glowed with a faint light; he had activated its Memory Release art

without a spoken command. The sword warped like a heat haze and left behind

an unbroken afterimage as the dragon soared forward.

He spoke through gritted teeth, uttering a brief apology to the innocent

dragon he was about to attack. Then his pale-blue eyes narrowed, and the

oldest knight in the world uttered a brief but powerful command.

"Time-Splitting Sword—Uragiri!!"

He swung the blade downward, heavily but with tremendous speed. The blue

afterimages traced the path of the sword, every bit of their length shining,

before going out.

In the far distant sky, the left wing of the black dragon carrying Emperor Vecta

silently separated from its shoulder joint.

"The smell…This smell…! So strong, the sweet scent of life," croaked Dee Eye

Ell as she lifted the human girl up by the hair.

He should have hated the dark mage more than hatred itself, but Lilpilin

found himself utterly at a loss in this situation.

Her tanned skin, once gleaming with perfumed oils, and her thick, wavy black

hair were both in a bedraggled state now. Wounds that oozed blood crossed

every bit of her skin, like she'd been slashed with countless knives. With each

movement, the lacerations pulled apart, sending more fresh blood spurting out.

But the dark mist around the mage gathered around her wounds and began to

plug them, hissing with an unpleasant stink.

The source of the mist was a small leather sack hanging from her waist. Every

now and then, an insectoid creature popped its head out of the opening and

belched out a healthy gout of the dark mist. This was clearly some dark art that

was meant to minimize her loss of life.

Lilpilin's snout crinkled in disgust. Dee shot him a look, and the edges of her

mouth curled upward. "This is quite a wonderful prize. You have done well, pig.

I will reward you with a bit of entertainment," she croaked.

Dee stuck the clawlike fingers of her right hand down the collar of the

hanging, anguished girl. Instantly, she ripped loose the silver armor and palegreen top she wore underneath it.

The girl squirmed even more as her blindingly pale skin was exposed. Dee's

smile was sadistic, and she hissed with laughter.

"Is this your first time seeing the body of a human woman? Does a pig find

this tempting? Well, the fun part is only getting started…"

Suddenly, her fingers wriggled as though the bones were gone. They were no

longer fingers, in fact, but had the appearance of long wormlike things. Tiny

mouths lined with sharp teeth opened at the ends of them, and they flopped

and writhed in an unpleasant manner.

"Here we go…!!" shouted Dee.

The five worm things stretched and grew to dozens of times their length and

wrapped around the girl's body. With her bound and immobile, the ends of the

creatures reared back and jammed their heads into her flesh to bite down.

"Aaaah!!"

Blood squirted from the bites as the girl named Leafa shrieked, her green eyes

bulging. She tried to brush off the worms, to yank them free, but her arms were

tied down to her body, and Lilpilin's decorative rope was still tied around her

wrists.

At first, it looked like the blood loss from the five bites was over in an instant.

But Lilpilin intuited that the worm things connected to Dee's hand were actually

drinking the blood instead.

The dark mage craned back her head and cried out, "System Call!! Transfer

Human Unit Durability to Self!!"

A shining-blue glow appeared at the girl's injuries. It traveled through the long

worms, marking the flow of blood, and made its way up into Dee's arm. The

girl's anguish grew even more stark, and her delicate body thrashed backward

so hard that it seemed ready to break in half.

"Ahhh…Incredible…It is incredible!! How rich…how sweet!!" The screeching

voice pierced Lilpilin's eardrums.

The pain of it caused the orc chieftain to return to his senses. He yelped, "Whwhat awe you doing?! Dat girl is my pwisonah!! I will take her to dah

empewah!!"

"Silence, swine!!" shrieked Dee, her eyes bloodshot and mad. "Have you

forgotten that His Majesty placed overall command in my hands?! My will is the

emperor's will!! My orders are the emperor's orders!!"

The breath caught in Lilpilin's throat. He wanted to argue that the military

operation had long ago failed to be; the words were right there. But the

emperor had vanished without leaving any newer orders. So there was no

evidence for Lilpilin to overturn Dee's claim that all orders were still valid and

active.

As Lilpilin watched helplessly, the struggles of the human girl grew noticeably

weaker. Dee's wounds, meanwhile, began to close and quickly heal.

"Guh…ggrh…," he grunted through gritted tusks. The sight of the girl with the

life being sucked from her overlapped with the lasting image of the princess

knight who'd given her life in sacrifice.

The light was going out of the girl's eyes. The paleness of her skin was turning

sallow, and her arms dangled limply at her sides. But Dee's finger worms

continued to wriggle and writhe, determined to suck out every last drop of

blood.

She was going to die. His precious prisoner.

The very first human to look at him without fear or disdain.

Just then, Lilpilin's eyes bulged with shock. The ground…the blackened,

sootlike earth of the Dark Territory, began to glow bright green beneath the

dangling girl.

Soft, fresh shoots erupted from the ground—something that should have

been possible only in extremely limited regions—and bloomed tiny flowers of

many colors. Fragrant, healing scent exuded from them, and even the bloodred

sunlight changed to a gentle, milky white.

The rich blooming of life from the little mound of grass swirled upward and

into the body of the girl. Her pale skin began to flush with blood again, and her

eyes went from dazed to bright.

The green on the ground then vanished, and the sun returned to its usual

color, telling Lilpilin intuitively that the girl's life was fully restored. Strangely,

relief flooded into his breast, though he shouldn't have felt anything like that.

The feeling was brief.

"Ohhh, yes…It is surging…Overflowing again!!" screamed Dee in her awful

voice. She would've already been healed by now. Dee let go of the girl's hair

and turned the fingers of that hand into more of the hideous worm things.

With more wet smacks, the five new tentacles stabbed into the girl's skin.

"…Aaaah…!!"

Her cry was drowned out by a gale of Dee's laughter.

"Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!! Aaaah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!! It's mine…!! This is all miiiine!!"

I have to endure.

Neither in real life nor in ALO had Leafa ever felt such mind-numbing pain. All

she could do was repeat the mantra to herself.

She'd gotten an explanation of the unique abilities of Super-Account 03,

Terraria, the Earth Goddess, before she dived. She had Unlimited Automatic

Recovery, which absorbed energy from a wide range around the user

automatically and could allow her to heal the durability of herself and other

people and objects. With that ability, on top of her massive total of hit points,

Higa assured her that it was virtually impossible for her to die by means of HP

loss.

That was why Leafa prioritized encountering Emperor Vecta, even risking the

danger of becoming a prisoner, and why she swore to herself that she would

never draw her sword on the Underworlders.

The woman who was constricting Leafa and inflicting agony upon her, like

Lilpilin, was an Underworlder—an artificial fluctlight. If she sliced the woman

with her sword, her soul would be forever destroyed. She couldn't fight the

woman without knowing why she was injured and why she wanted to be healed

this way.

On the other hand…the pain of having her life sucked away was

overwhelming, so much so that she didn't have room to feel the shame of most

of her top being ripped away.

Was this really just a virtual sensation, with no relation to anything the real

body felt?

"…Stop."

Lilpilin did not initially recognize that the word was coming from his own

mouth.

But then the action repeated itself clearer, the movement of his mouth and

vibration of his vocal cords unmistakable.

"Stop!"

Dee's pupils were contracted to the size of the eye of a needle. She glared at

him balefully. The orc chieftain withstood the rising chill from deep in his gut

and continued, "You have alweady wecovered all of yoah life. You have no need

to continue sucking da life fwom dat Ium!"

"You dare…order me…?" Dee lilted, like an off-kilter lullaby. Her ten tentacles

spasmed, squeezing the girl's flesh and continuing their blood feast. The dark

mage's wounds were entirely healed now, and her skin was shiny and oily

again. Even her hair was growing back with more fullness than before.

In fact, the excess of life flowing through her was dispersing out into the air in

the form of blue lights. But Dee showed no sign of undoing her wicked

bondage.

"I warned you, pig. This prisoner is mine now. I can suck as much life from her

as I want. I can defile her right before your eyes or decide to gut her right here

and now, and you have no say in the matter."

She chuckled, the laughter muffled deep in her throat.

"Hmm…but on the other hand, you did find her first. I suppose I could give

you something in return…but only if you strip naked first."

"Wh…what do you mean…?"

"From the moment I first saw you, that fanciful armor and cloak of yours

made me sick. What kind of a pig walks around like he's a person? Take it all off

and run around snorting on all fours, and maybe I'll think about giving the girl

back to you."

Zirnk.

Red light flickered on the right side of his vision. He felt a deep, deep pain in

the middle of his head, like a steel needle had been jabbed all the way through

his right eye.

What kind of a pig…

…like he's a person?

Dee's words repeated in his mind, only to be followed by the girl named

Leafa's.

You're still human.

What more proof does there need to be?

He couldn't let Dee kill her. He didn't want Dee to kill her. And to do that…to

prevent that…

Lilpilin's right hand moved to the clasp of his leather cloak. He ripped it loose

from his shoulders.

The cloak fell to the ground, and he reached for his armor's leather straps

next. But then came a faint voice: "…Stop."

He looked up with a start, directly into Leafa's eyes.

Those emerald pools, tearful with pain, shook from side to side.

"I…I'm fine. Don't…do…"

She never finished. Dee leaned over and gave the girl's cheek a soft bite.

"If you spout any more of that nonsense, I'm going to chew off your sweet

little face. Don't ruin our entertainment. And what are you doing, pig? Off with

your armor. Or has the naked human form gotten you all excited?"

She cackled and giggled.

Lilpilin's hand shook on the armor's straps. The pain in his right eye was not

going away at all. But it was nothing compared to the fury and humiliation that

raged within his rib cage.

"I…I am…I am…"

Abruptly, he felt something burst from his eyes and drip down his cheeks. The

droplets trickling down the left cheek were clear, but the ones on the right were

crimson. His hand dropped from the armor strap to the sword at his left side.

"I am human!!" he shouted, right as the worst pain yet lanced through his

eye, and the organ burst from the inside.

Through his reduced sight, Lilpilin kept a close watch on Dee. The mage's

sadistic smile faded, and her jaw dropped in horror.

Lilpilin hurtled a quick-draw slash right at Dee's unguarded legs. But since he

attacked in the moments just after he lost half of his eyesight, he failed to judge

the distance correctly.

The tip of the sword only grazed Dee's right shin, and Lilpilin lost his balance,

toppling shoulder-first into the ground. Through his upturned eye, he saw Dee

Eye Ell's mouth curl into an expression of fury and disgust.

"You stinking hog…How dare you turn your sword on me…!"

She tossed the girl behind her and raised her hands. The ten appendages rang

like metal and instantly went from tentacles to shining black blades.

"I'll carve you into chunks of meat, mix you with the hay, and feed you to the

boars!!"

The orc chief waited for the array of blades to come down on him.

Tup.

Thump.

Two quiet sounds happened nearly simultaneously. Dee froze in place.

The mage's arms separated from her body just below the shoulders and fell

heavily to the ground, a fact that Lilpilin only hazily registered.

Dee looked just as shocked as anyone else. Blood spurted and gushed from

her shoulders as she slowly turned to look behind her.

Lilpilin saw the figure of Leafa shining brightly. Her body was so slender and

fragile that none of it resembled muscle, but she was in the follow-through

stance of swinging a truly massive and long sword. Her wrists were still bound

together, but it was clear that she was the one who had severed Dee's arms.

The dark mage's head shook in utter disbelief. "A human…cutting a human…

to save a pig…?" she rasped.

"No," Leafa explained. "I'm cutting evil to save a person." And with a smooth,

practiced movement, she raised the long blade into a high position.

Shwip.

She slashed the woman from a distance that did not seem possible. It

was…beautiful.

There was no excess effort anywhere from her fingers to her toes, but the

speed of the strike was breathtaking. It was the ultimate demonstration of

experienced precision.

Lilpilin's vision flooded with tears again, this time of joyful emotion, as the

body of Dee Eye Ell, the greatest living dark mage and highest member of the

remaining ten lords, split straight down the middle without a sound.

4

With its last bit of strength, the black dragon managed a soft landing with its

one remaining wing and perished with a feeble cry. Gabriel Miller watched it die

without emotion.

By the time he looked away from it, the dragon was completely purged from

his memory and thoughts. He spun around to survey the area impassively.

They had crashed onto the top of a rock that stood in the center of a wide

field of oddly cylindrical rock pillars. It appeared to be about a hundred yards

tall and thirty yards across.

Perhaps just jumping down would be reckless. He had not nearly mastered

the means of magic in this world, generating elements and wielding them to

perform tasks. And of course, he was not going anywhere and leaving the still

unconscious Priestess of Light behind.

Gabriel could easily rappel down a wall of this height in the real world if he

had a sturdy rope, anchor, and carabiner, but there was no need to jump off

this rock now. The enemy that had shot him down through unknown means

was approaching from the north with a trio of dragons at this very moment. He

could take care of the enemy, conquer a new dragon's AI, and resume the

southward journey.

He looked straight overhead. The virtual sun in the red sky was already at a

high angle. There was likely little time left before Critter resumed accelerating

the time ratio. The only issue was whether the American "beta testers" could

wipe out the Human Empire's army before the acceleration knocked them off

the simulation. There were fifty thousand of them, however; it shouldn't be any

issue for them to eliminate the less than one thousand remaining foes.

If there was an uncertain variable in the mix, it would be the Integrity Knights,

who'd destroyed the Dark Army, which vastly outnumbered them, but he

already had one in his possession, and whoever was pursuing him now would

likely be a knight as well. There would be only one or two of them still fighting

to the north.

Assuming that his problem would solve itself, Gabriel lastly gazed at the prone

Integrity Knight, Alice.

She is simply beautiful.

Enough that it was hard to control the writhing anticipation deep in his core.

He wondered briefly if it would be better to remove all her equipment and tie

her up before she woke. That would be the logical choice, certainly, but he did

not like the idea of quickly and mechanically performing the task because an

enemy was approaching.

This was something he wanted to savor. He wanted to take his time, once the

acceleration rate increased again. Every last buckle of armor removed should be

an act unto itself: graceful, solemn, symbolic.

"…Just rest peacefully there for now, Alice…Alicia," Gabriel said gently. He

strode to the center of the table-like rock, preparing to greet his foe.

Although neither Gabriel Miller nor Critter was aware of it, it was not the

simple dragon kick that knocked Alice, the strongest of Integrity Knights,

unconscious for several hours, but a special ability belonging to Super-Account

04—Vecta, the god of darkness.

The four super-accounts in the Underworld were designed for the purpose of

directly manipulating the world and its inhabitants in ways that were

tantamount to the work of gods.

Stacia modified the world terrain.

Solus destroyed mobile units.

Terraria restored object durability.

And Vecta manipulated the residents—artificial fluctlights.

Technically, he overwrote their memories, altering the vector data in their

fluctlights—the inspiration for his name—so that they could be placed in distant

locations or given new families and still function.

Because this meant physically abducting the residents, that made the role

unsuitable for worship, unlike the three other gods. Therefore, in addition to his

top-priority gear and maximum life value, he had another layer of powerful

protection: He could not be targeted with arts. The "lost children of Vecta," a

kind of folklore myth in the Underworld, referred to those who had been

moved elsewhere by Vecta's powers.

And the combination of the god of darkness's powers with Gabriel Miller's

extreme sense of imagination—his ability to Incarnate—had a synergistic effect

that even Rath's engineers could not have predicted.

He absorbed a person's will without using arts. Alice's fluctlight was

temporarily rendered inactive, putting her into a kind of forced coma.

The way that he devoured Dark General Shasta's tremendous Incarnation was

another feat of Vecta's and Gabriel's powers combined.

And now Shasta's longtime respected rival, Integrity Knight Commander

Bercouli, was plunging headlong toward the same conclusion.

Bercouli spotted the emperor's dragon crashing on top of a rocky growth that

would leave him trapped for at least a little while. The use of that tremendous

ability left him physically spent, but he swept the fatigue aside with sheer

willpower.

"All right…One more burst of flight, Hoshigami, Amayori, Takiguri!!" he

shouted, and the three mounts beat their wings harder to pick up speed. If the

enemy was stationary now, the dragons could cross a distance of ten kilors in

just a blink.

In the small amount of time he had before the fight, Bercouli engaged in a

kind of meditative trance. The dream he'd had in the early hours of the morning

flooded back into his mind, bright and vivid.

Have you ever sensed your own death? Administrator had said in his dream.

Even after centuries of interaction with her, she was a mystery to the end.

When he was unfrozen, and Alice told him of the pontifex's death, he did not

feel anything he would describe as shock. It was more of an appreciation for her

long, long efforts. If anything, the real surprise to him was that Prime Senator

Chudelkin was dead.

So he did not press Alice for details of the battle against Administrator or

about how she died. Part of that was the sudden weight of protecting the

human world now on his shoulders, but perhaps a part of him also didn't want

to know. He did not want to know about the depth of that silver-haired, silvereyed half goddess's desire, obsession, and karma.

To Bercouli, Administrator was a languid, fickle, and willful princess. He was

obedient to her, but he did not worship her the way Chudelkin did.

And yet…his servitude to her was not something he hated doing.

"It's true…I hope you believe me on that point, at least," the oldest knight

muttered to himself.

His eyes flashed open. He'd caught a glimpse of Alice's golden armor lying on

the top of the rock—and Emperor Vecta looming before her like a standing

shadow.

"Here we go…you three hover in the air!" Bercouli ordered the dragons. "If I

fall, go back north and rejoin the group!"

With that, he leaped from Hoshigami's back out into open air.

With Sinon flying ahead and leaving a white trail behind her like a meteorite,

the seven hundred members of the human army continued their desperate

southern march. They were pulling away from the rumbling red army behind

them, but the guards and the horses couldn't keep running like this forever.

Asuna stood on the canopy of the wagon carrying Kirito, Tiese, and Ronie and

watched the sky to the south, praying.

After twenty minutes of progress, as Sinon had told them, a massive ruin that

looked like a temple appeared on the horizon. There was no sign of large

animals, including humans or demi-humans. It was a place of old, weathered

stone, slumbering in silence.

On either side of the straight-line path sat long, flat temple buildings. They

were about sixty feet tall, and over a thousand feet long. It was certainly a large

enough obstacle to prevent the enemy from surrounding them on all sides.

The path continued right through the two temples and onward to the south.

It had a ceremonial feel to it, thanks to the eerie giant statues lining it on both

sides. The statues were not Eastern Buddhist style or classical European gods. If

anything, they were more reminiscent of the ruins of South America, squat and

blocky. Their faces had round eyes and gaping mouths, with short little hands

joined in front of their chests.

Was that something that the Rath engineers designed personally when they

were building the Underworld? Or did The Seed automatically generate it?

Or perhaps…the races that once lived here in the Dark Territory carved the

stone from the mountains and brought them here. As giant gravestones

dedicated to the dead…?

Asuna exhaled to push the ominous thought out of her mind. She called out

to Renly, who was on his dragon at the head of the group. "Let's fight back

against the enemy in the middle of that ceremonial path!"

He shouted back to indicate his understanding.

Within a few minutes, the army charged down the path between the temples

without losing speed. The giant blocky gods stared down at them from the left

and right. The ground underneath went from dirt to paving stones, making the

horse hooves and marching boots louder.

Through the chilly air, Renly's handsome voice called out, "Lead group, branch

off to the sides and halt! Let the wagons and rear group through!"

The eight wagons trundled past the split lead troops, and the rear troops

made up mostly of priests followed them, taking position at the farther point

down the road. A dry wind blew through the large gate, rustling Asuna's hair.

The silence lasted only a moment. The ominous rumbling of the army of

American players reached the ruins, sending fine grains of sand spilling from the

statues around them.

Asuna jumped off the wagon and spoke to the girls who peered out from the

cargo space and the swordswoman who stood next to them.

"This is the final battle. I'm leaving Kirito in your care."

"Of course! We'll keep him safe, Miss Asuna!"

"He's under our protection!"

"Upon my life."

Asuna returned the salute of fist to chest that Ronie, Tiese, and Sortiliena

gave her in turn, and then she grinned.

"Don't worry. We're not going to let them get this far."

It was as much for her own ears as it was for theirs. She waved her open hand

and spun around.

At the lead of the troops, Renly was busy arranging the men-at-arms. The

temple path was about twenty yards across, a little bit too wide to properly

defend, but they had enough people that they could block it off and still rotate

troops in and out.

The big question was whether or not they could grind down over ten

thousand enemy troops, minimizing losses, while the priests in the rear could

still perform support magic. Fortunately, the red soldiers seemed to have no

magic users of any kind among them. It was probably because it would be

impossible to teach new players the complex command system of the

Underworld's sacred arts in such a short amount of time. Whatever the case, it

was a welcome development.

And if need be, I will cut down the entire enemy army myself, Asuna swore,

inhaling deeply.

Given Stacia's vast life reserves and top-priority equipment, she would not be

defeated through numerical damage. The real question was whether or not she

could stand the blinding pain that came with each wound suffered. If she gave

in to the pain, not only would she be physically damaged, but she would find

herself cowering, unable to swing her sword back at the enemy.

Asuna closed her eyes and thought of Kirito, damaged and broken. She

thought of the pain he had suffered and the sadness he still bore.

When she stepped forward again, there was no fear left in her.

The clash between armed forces, what promised to be the last major battle in

this war, started beneath the sun at its apex.

The first group of about twenty American players, seeking ultrarealistic blood

and screams as promised by the promotional site, plunged down the path to

the ruins. But they were not met in battle by helpless NPCs designed for some

sadistic pleasure-jaunt with no board ratings. They were battling against true

heroes who were fighting to save the world and, more specifically, the golden

Integrity Knight those people adored and worshipped. Their weapons were

ragged and chipped but shone with unyielding determination, blocking the

enemy's blows and smashing their armor.

One figure observed the one-sided obliteration of the red-armored players

from above.

He wore tight-fitting black leather with almost no metal plating whatsoever,

like a motorcycle riding suit. The smooth leather was instead studded with dullsilver rivets all over.

His only weapon, which hung from his left hip, was a huge dagger almost the

size of a kitchen knife. His face was hidden; he wore a black leather poncho with

a hood that he kept pulled down over his features. Where his lips were visible,

they featured a smile twisted in the extreme.

Vassago Casals.

After logging back in to the Underworld, he deftly evaded Sinon's wideranging laser attack and snuck among the Americans chasing after the guardian

army's decoy force. He chose not to take part in the first wave of attackers,

instead climbing up the wall of the western temple building and perching atop

one of the statues with a first-row view of the battlefield.

"Heh-heh, I see that part of her hasn't changed. She's ruthless when she

snaps. Look at her kill!" he marveled, his shoulders rocking with mirth.

Far below, Asuna the Flash, the girl with chestnut-brown hair and pearlywhite armor, jabbed and thrust her rapier with impossible speed, just as

Vassago remembered from the distant past.

Now, as back then, Vassago hid and watched, unbeknownst to her. Deep

inside, he swore to himself that he would finish her off before this world came

to an end.

Along with the swordsman in black who fought even more ferociously than

she did.

When Bercouli jumped from the back of the dragon, there was nearly two

hundred mels of space between his feet and the top of the rocky pillar. Even he

could not withstand a collision of that much force if he simply let gravity do all

the work.

Instead, the knight commander descended in a spiral, as though following an

invisible staircase down the sky. As a matter of fact, he was generating wind

elements under his feet with each step, setting them off and using the

counterforce to slow his descent. He'd stolen the secret art of using feet as

element control terminals from Chudelkin decades ago.

The oldest Integrity Knight leaped again and again, staying out of Emperor

Vecta's sightlines on the artificial-looking rock pinnacle far below him. He put

his hand on the hilt of his sword.

I'll settle it with the first strike.

Commander Bercouli had not fashioned a truly deadly Incarnation since he'd

cut apart the dark general two generations before, 150 years ago. That was how

long it had been since he'd faced an opponent that necessitated the

summoning of such a feat.

When he'd battled the youngster named Eugeo in Central Cathedral, Bercouli

had fought his hardest, but not with intent to kill. And on that note, he had

never truly felt negative emotions like fury or hatred when he faced the dark

generals who were his greatest rivals.

In other words, this was the first time in Bercouli's long, long life that he

infused his beloved weapon with true anger.

He was furious. He burned with righteous wrath. And it was more than just

for Alice's sake.

This outsider, from some place he called the real world, had swept in and

driven the darklanders to war when there might have been a chance for peace.

He'd caused tens of thousands of deaths for no purpose. And this was

something that Bercouli could not forgive, after more than two centuries of

dedication to the protection of the world.

I have no idea what makes you tick, Emperor Vecta. But I know from seeing

that Asuna girl that not all the real-worlders are demons like you. It's your

personal nature that's evil.

And you must pay a price.

You will know the weight of the lives of Dark General Shasta, of Integrity

Knight Eldrie, of all the people who perished on the field of battle…with this

blow!!

"Zeyaaah!!"

His last step came at a height of ten mels, at which point Commander Bercouli

let himself plunge downward, bringing all the force he could muster into a

swing at Emperor Vecta's defenseless skull.

The air seared and flashed. The light his blade produced was so bright that the

world lost all color.

It was undoubtedly the most powerful single sword strike that had ever

happened in the history of the Underworld. Its priority level in overwriting the

Mnemonic Data of the Main Visualizer surpassed that of the system's

commands themselves. It was a true automatic kill shot, nullifying any and all

numerical stats that might oppose it.

Enough to deplete all the nearly infinite life of Super-Account 04, Vecta, the

god of darkness.

As long as it hit.

Even in the instant that he noticed the lethal meteor plummeting at him from

the heavens, Vecta's expression did not change.

The attack was so fast that the only thing he could do was look up at it. It was

instantaneous, impossible to react or respond to.

And yet, Vecta's body in its obsidian armor simply slid to the side—in the only

possible direction to avoid the blow, with only the minimum distance necessary

to put him out of harm's way.

The only thing Bercouli's sword touched was his flapping red cloak. The hem

of fur and thick fabric was obliterated into fine dust, and the top of the tough

rock mountain split deep with a thunderous kaboooom!! The entire structure

shook, and chunks of it split off and fell down to the ground below.

He…evaded that?

Bercouli's body did not stop moving for an instant, despite closing his eyes. He

was long past the stage of experience when an unexpected action from the

enemy paralyzed one's mind.

He kicked one last time in midair and landed around the flank of the emperor,

instantly striking on a flat plane. He had missed on executing an all-consuming

super-attack but transitioned to his next swing in less than half a second.

Vecta dodged that one, too.

Like smoke pushed by a breeze, he simply slid along the ground without any

shift in momentum. The tip of the sword scraped the surface of his armor,

sending up harmless sparks.

But this time, Bercouli was sure of his victory.

The first powerful blow from above had missed, but it wasn't gone. He'd

activated the Perfect Weapon Control art of his weapon—the Time-Splitting

Sword's Karagiri—the ability to cut the future. It was the skill that had caused

Eugeo such pain in the cathedral, leaving the full power of the cut hanging in

the air, such that anyone who touched that space received that slice courtesy of

an invisible blade.

Emperor Vecta slid backward toward the space where the invisible slashes

hovered.

First, his platinum-silver hair frayed and spread.

The crown over his forehead cracked and broke into pieces.

Vecta's arms rose high in a mockery of a pose of pleading for forgiveness.

Bercouli had a vivid vision of his tall black form splitting vertically.

Whap.

A dry smacking sound.

The emperor's palms clapping together, without so much as a glance behind

him.

He trapped my Karagiri, the empty slice, between his bare hands? And with his

back to it?

It was impossible. The secret technique of trapping a sword between the

hands was known among the pugilists of the dark world, but it was possible

only because of their incredibly tough fists, which were harder than tempered

steel. And more importantly, the power of the Karagiri hanging in the air was

beyond even what the chief of the pugilists could stop with his bare hands.

This understanding flashed through Bercouli's mind in an instant, but at last, it

caused him to stop moving. And therefore, he was caught flat-footed, only able

to watch what happened in the next moment.

The slash that flickered in the air like a heat haze melded into the emperor's

hands. His blue eyes began to swirl with darkness.

And within that pit of blackness flickered countless…stars…?

No.

They were souls. The souls of all the people he had absorbed, trapped within

him. And among them were surely the souls of Dark General Shasta and the

woman who'd served as his right hand…

"…So you can devour the Incarnations of others?" Bercouli muttered.

Vecta lowered his hands, the force of the Karagiri entirely absorbed now.

"Incarnation? Some melding of mind and will, I suppose."

His voice was deathly cold, a human voice stripped of all living humanity. His

thin lips moved into the shape typically recognized as a smile. "Your mind is like

a wine of aged vintage. Rich, thick, heavy…with a lasting aftertaste. It is not to

my taste…but as an opening act, it is a worthy flavor."

His pale hand moved to grab the hilt of the longsword at his side. He pulled

the thin blade free from the sheath; it shone with a bluish-purple light. Vecta let

the weapon dangle at his side as he smiled again.

"Now, let me drink more."

A thick greatsword glanced off Asuna's left arm. It felt as though a searing hot

poker had been pressed against the spot.

It doesn't hurt!! she told herself. And just as quickly, the wound on her skin

simply vanished.

Already, though, her arm was a smoky blur, jabbing four consecutive times

into the soldier across from her, from right shoulder to left flank. The man's

face twisted, and he fell to the ground, but not before emitting a truly

impressive string of vulgarities.

She'd long ago lost count of how many foes she'd defeated. In fact, she

wasn't even sure how many minutes it had been since the battle at the ruins

had commenced—or how many dozens of minutes. All she knew for certain was

that the red soldiers pouring down the entrance to the temple path still seemed

unlimited in number.

A battle of endurance like this is no big deal. It wasn't rare for the boss fights

back in Aincrad to take three or four hours, Asuna recalled. She used her rapier

to deflect an ax swing from a new enemy leaping over the body of his

disintegrating comrade.

She thrust a quick, accurate strike into the heart of the unbalanced foe and

used the opportunity to glance to either side of her.

To Asuna's right, Renly was hurling boomerangs with each hand and amassing

a mountain of dead around him. Their power and accuracy were tremendous,

and he seemed to be totally in control of his area.

The problem was on the left side. The captains of the men-at-arms were

arranged there around Sortiliena, but it was clear that they were steadily

getting pushed back.

"Left wing, shorten the intervals of your rotation! Focus more healing on the

left side, please!"

"I can still fight, Miss Asuna!" Sortiliena shouted back. She activated the Two-

Handed Sword skill Cyclone. Her sword glowed light green and made a rapid full

rotation that sent three enemy soldiers flying, but she wound up down on a

knee when it was done. From what Asuna had heard during their late-night

sharing of memories, the swordsmen of noble birth were trained in one-on-one

ceremonial battles, leaving them unfamiliar with a long, unpredictable melee

like this.

As a matter of fact, Liena's combat was flowing and bold, but even Asuna,

who'd been in this world for only a day, could see that it was too fair and

square. She used big attacks with hardly any feints or tricks to unbalance foes,

and the post-skill delay immobilized her long enough for the surviving enemies

to land a few wild hits on her. Her armor was already chipped all over, and her

purple guard's uniform was stained with blood in places.

"Step back and get healed, Liena! Trust in your companions!" Asuna

commanded. Liena bit her lip but said "I'll be right back!" and retreated.

Another head guard stepped in to fill the empty spot in the line she'd left, but

there was already fatigue etched into his features.

There was one more thing that bothered Asuna besides the exhaustion of the

left wing.

The soldiers in red armor they were fighting weren't humanoid monsters

running on simple algorithms. They were veteran MMORPG players from

America, the nation that had birthed the genre. They were used to PvP battle,

and it wasn't a stretch to suggest that they would soon grow tired of simple

charging and come up with a different strategy.

What would I do in their position? Asuna wondered as her rapier flashed and

jabbed. The old faithful method would be a long-range attack from the rear. But

the crimson army seemed to have no magic users. Even if there were, it was

probably too much to expect them to use the Underworld's complex command

strings without practice first.

That left only archers, but fortunately, it seemed that none of the enemy

accounts were equipped with bows and arrows. They could also throw their

weapons, perhaps, but nobody wanted to let go of their swords and axes and

risk not being able to fight anymore.

So it seemed a safe assumption that the enemy side had no means of

breaking through the stalemate.

That meant, as she'd initially surmised, that the only answer was to keep

grinding until the ten-thousand-plus were gone.

But just as she told herself that, a dark shadow crossed the entrance to the

temple road. The sun was blocked by a line of huge shields and a field of lances

standing tall like flagpoles.

Heavy spearmen!

"Th-they're going to charge with spears!! Watch the points and avoid the first

lunge!! Once you're inside their length, they can be beaten!!" Asuna called out

to her comrades on the sides, right as the huge lances clanked into position.

"""Chaaaaaarge!!"""

The line of twenty lancers bellowed and began to rumble toward them. The

men-at-arms grew antsy, sensing the pressure of a red tsunami approaching.

Just calm down, everyone! Asuna prayed as she stared down those who were

charging at her. The wicked, gleaming lances had lethal power, given the force

behind them.

Wait until they're as close as possible…and parry!

The rapier slid along the side of the spear, spraying yellow sparks. The sharp

point of the polearm passed just to the right of Asuna's face and continued

behind her.

"…Haah!!" she screamed, thrusting the rapier up toward the gap in the

enemy's armor, right near his throat. An ugly squelching sensation traveled

back through her palm. Blood squirted from the bottom of the helmet.

But the screams that ensued were not only from the enemy forces. A number

of men-at-arms on the left wing had been speared through.

"…!!"

Asuna gritted her teeth and ran to the left, leaving her station. She used the

simple Linear Thrust to run through one enemy soldier who was trying to pull

his lance free from a deceased guard. She then removed her bloodied weapon

and took off the next enemy's arms with the two-part Parallel Sting skill.

The third enemy thrust his lance at her with an angry insult, and she jumped

directly over it, landing on top of the spear and running along it until she put a

foot on his shoulder, pulled off his helmet with her free hand, and jabbed her

rapier deep into his exposed neck.

As the man sank without so much as a scream, Asuna stayed on his back and

called out, "Take the wounded to the back!! They are the top healing priority!!"

Another glance at the battlefield told her that the twenty-lance charge had

ended in failure thanks to the hard effort of Renly and the men-at-arms, but six

of their number had taken a direct hit—and three of them would not likely

survive.

If they repeat this strategy, our overwhelming disadvantage in numbers is

going to be exposed when we don't have enough to maintain the line.

That horrible knowledge came true with another rumble. The next group of

twenty lancers was charging through the entrance to the temple grounds.

Asuna tore her gaze away from the oncoming lances and back to the center of

the line, where she was supposed to be situated. A young man-at-arms there,

practically still a boy, was holding his sword at the ready, knees knocking.

"Ah…!" she gasped, running to her right. She leaped for the spot between the

lance charging from the left and the boy standing still on the right. She wouldn't

be able to parry it in time with her rapier. The only thing she could do was try to

grab the glinting lance head with her left hand.

If this were an ordinary VRMMO world, Asuna's block would be successful

due to her incredible reaction speed and strength stat. But the Underworld had

all kinds of parameters that games like SAO and ALO ignored.

The smooth steel lance slipped through her blood-slicked palm—and a dull

shock jolted her body. Asuna looked down, voiceless, to see the chunk of metal

jabbing deep into her side.

Maximum efficiency with minimum movement.

That was how Commander Bercouli viewed Emperor Vecta's fighting style,

which was different from anything he'd seen before.

For one thing, his feet hardly moved. When he dodged an attack, his feet just

slid across the ground a tiny bit. He also had nearly no windup for any kind of

attack. The sword would be limply held in his right hand, then slither forward to

strike at the shortest possible range.

Therefore, it was essentially impossible to predict his movements. The

emperor's attacks were not especially quick or powerful, but they kept the

vastly more experienced Bercouli from countering, five consecutive times.

But five was enough.

Calling upon his vast past knowledge and instinct, Bercouli had a grasp of

Vecta's attacks by that point and moved to counterattack on the sixth one at

last.

"Sssh!" he hissed as quietly as possible, striking high before Vecta's swing

could come. White sparks accompanied a piercing clash of metal.

Two swords connected in the air—and it was a battle of strength from here.

The enemy's sword sank easily, without much resistance. Tall Vecta's knees

bent, as if giving out to the pressure.

I sense victory!!

Bercouli poured all his finely honed Incarnation into his sword. The well-used

steel blade began to give off light. The tip of the Time-Splitting Sword, which

pushed Vecta's black longsword lower and lower, finally touched his shoulder

and dug into the surface of his armor…

In that moment, Vecta's sword flashed eerily. The bluish-purple light moved

like a living thing, wrapping around the Time-Splitting Sword. Suddenly, the

rippling, powerful light of Bercouli's silver blade began to wilt and vanish.

What is this? In fact…

What was I…even trying…to do…?

With a sharp crack, Bercouli sensed a freezing chill in his left shoulder and

snapped his eyes wide open. He leaped back, sucked in a deep breath, and

collected himself.

What in the world was that? Did I just space out in the middle of a battle?!

Aghast, he shook his head, telling himself that it was not some careless

accident.

It was as though his mind had been forcefully devoured by blankness, leaving

him unable to explain why he was there or even who he was.

"You…you sucked my Incarnation straight from my sword?" growled Bercouli,

deep in his throat.

The only answer he got was the faintest of smiles. Bercouli clicked his tongue

and glanced at his shoulder. The wound was deeper than just a scratch.

"Hmph…well, you're proving to be a better opponent than I thought, Your

Majesty. This will be a tough battle if I can't use my sword against yours."

Bercouli grinned back.

That wiped the smile from Vecta's mouth. "Ah…That reminds me, I never

tested it."

He stuck his sword out forward, but it was far from the proper range. The

blade would never reach— But from the tip in the air emerged a viscous blueblack light.

…From long range? Bercouli recognized, right at the moment that the light

touched his chest.

His consciousness went dim, like the flickering of candle flames.

The knight commander stood there dumbly, watching as his opponent's

sword slunk its way under his left arm.

Then it jumped upward, smoothly and easily.

Bercouli's thick arm split off from the shoulder with a wet, heavy squelch.

"Krh…aa…ahhh!!"

Asuna managed to hold the scream in her throat and keep it to a gurgle. This

was not pain. It was an explosion of sensation that overwhelmed her capacity to

feel at all, as if her stomach were pressed against a hot burner plate and unable

to pull away.

This doesn't hurt.

I swear, this doesn't hurt!!

The dark lance pierced deep through her stomach on the left side. It had to be

jutting at least three feet out of her back. She looked over her shoulder to see

the boy guard behind her; his cheek had only been grazed by the lance. She

summoned every last ounce of willpower she possessed to give the shaken,

pale-faced boy a smile.

None of these virtual wounds mean anything…compared to the weight of that

boy's life!!

"Aaaah!!"

She put all her strength into her left hand, which was still gripping the lance.

A horrible wet crunch sounded as the two-inch-thick piece of metal cracked in

her palm. She reached around her back, grabbed the jutting end of the spear,

and pulled on it.

Sparks flew in her eyes, and something like an electric shock ran from the top

of her head to her toes. But Asuna never stopped, using the momentum of her

strength to pull the lance out, then tossing it to the ground.

Blood gushed in astonishing amounts from both the gaping wound in her

torso and her mouth, but Asuna did not stumble or sway. She lifted her free

hand to wipe her lips and stared up at the stunned enemy soldier before her.

The big man holding the broken lance blinked several times. His eyes looked

uncertain through the visor of his helmet.

"Oh, gosh," he stammered a few times. The English flowed from his mouth in

rapid succession. "Geez, man…this game isn't fun at all. This sucks! I'm gonna

log off."

Asuna obliged him by jabbing her rapier through his heart in one quick

motion. His large body fell to the ground and was quickly surrounded by the

visual disintegration effect.

For some reason, the tears that no pain could summon now burst from her

eyes.

The pain and hatred that covered every inch of this battlefield did not need to

exist.

There was no reason for the American players and the men-at-arms of the

guardian army to do battle. These were people who could have easily gotten

along under different circumstances—such as Asuna's.

This was not why virtual worlds—why VRMMOs—were created.

"H…el…p…," screamed a voice in Japanese, pulling Asuna out of her thoughts.

She saw that a huge lance was being stabbed downward at a guard collapsed on

the ground.

"Yaaaaah!!" roared Asuna, springing into motion. Her rapier darted forward.

Light erupted from its tip, covering the entire weapon.

Her feet left the ground, and Asuna flew forward like a shining comet. It was

the most powerful of charging skills in the fencing class, Flashing Penetrator.

The spearman trying to kill the guard was hurtled up into the air. The enemy

behind him suffered the same fate, as did the one behind him.

The sword skill came to a stop only when a fourth body was laid at the feet of

the holy statue. Asuna spun around, shoulders heaving with her breath. The

second wave of charging lancers left at least another five dead in their wake.

And a third wave of twenty was already forming up at the end of the path.

She pulled her rapier from the body already starting to vanish and shouted,

"Everyone, protect your stations!! Renly, move over to the center!!"

The young knight paled when he saw the blood flowing from Asuna's

stomach, so she gave him a reassuring grin and continued, "I'm going to jump

forward into the enemy's position. Just worry about the ones I don't get first."

"M…Miss Asuna?!" Renly stammered. She raised a clenched left fist in answer

to him and the other men-at-arms.

Then Asuna ran straight ahead.